Blue Plaque Unveilings and more

Attitude marks Kate Bush's greatest hits:

Wuthering Heights (1978)
You couldn’t have a list like this without Kate’s iconic debut single.
Released at the dawn of 1978, in an era where punk and disco ruled the airwaves, Kate arrived, at 19, with this eccentric and entirely unique slice of proggy neo-classical art pop that, no exaggeration, changed the course of pop music.
Fun fact: Kate shares a birthday with Wuthering Heights author Emily Brontë, so turns 63 on the 203rd anniversary of Emily Brontë’s birth. (Matthew Barton)

National Geographic UK interviews Katharine Norbury, editor of the recently published anthology Women on Nature: 

Simon Ingram: What do you hope the next generation of women on nature will be writing about? 

K.N.: (...) If you really want the best ideas for creating a sustainable future then give writers a free reign and see what they come up with. But don’t dismiss Emily Bronte’s love of starlight as a person-centred irrelevance because she doesn’t know the Latin names for things. Like all activists, I hope that one day my cause will disappear. 

Gazette & Herald recommends Caroline Taggart's The Book Lover's Bucket List:

She begins her tour in London, at Westminster Abbey – asking ‘what better place to start a literary voyage?’ She explains that many of Britain’s most famous writers have a connection to it; illustrious names such as Geoffrey Chaucer, author of The Canterbury Tales and poet Edmund Spenser are buried there, alongside lexicographer Samuel Johnson and novelist Charles Dickens. Others are memorialised in the abbey, including Jane Austen, William Blake and the Bronte sisters – and many more. (Karen Darley)

Lifehacker lists some film sequels that are better than expected. Talking about The Curse of the Cat People: 

Val Lewton was a producer who, in a sense, made a bargain unheard of in the history of Hollywood ego, trading prestige for freedom. He took a job as head of the horror department at RKO, and was given only three restrictions: The movies had to be cheap, relatively short, and the studio would provide titles (so, for example, we have a revisionist take on Jane Eyre and scathing critique of colonialism titled...I Walked with a Zombie). Other than that, he had free rein. The apex of this period was 1942’s Cat People, a stylish psychosexual noir directed by Jacques Tourneur that was much more about repressed trauma and existential dread than monsters…but there were enough horror movie trappings to make it a hit. (Ross Johnson)

Bookriot lists 'the best compliments in books'. One of the selections comes from Jane Eyre:

“Every atom of your flesh is as dear to me as my own: in pain and sickness it would still be dear.” (Selected by Alison Doherty)

The Times recommends Scoff: A History of Food and Class in Britain by Pen Vogler:

Alongside these fascinating tales, Janice Turner wrote in her review, Pen Vogler “serves a buffet of obscure facts from historic cookery books, along with keen culinary readings of Austen, Dickens and the Brontës”. Tuck in. 

We agree with Folha de S.Paulo (Brazil), to revisit Wuthering Heights is always an appealing idea:

A primeira leitura de “O Morro dos Ventos Uivantes” foi há pouco mais de 50 anos. O romance de Emily Brontë, publicado pela Coleção Saraiva, provocou estupor. Mais pela sua esquisitice do que pelo encanto.
Ele se passa entre o século 18 e o 19 e tem um enredo febril. Exaltados e desagradáveis, os personagens se engalfinham num arranca-rabo perpétuo. Sua gritaria ecoa num ambiente ficcional sórdido e incompreensível. Ao menos para um pacato adolescente paulistano. (...) (Mario Sergio Conti) (Translation)

Finally, check the highlights from The Brontë Blue Plaque Unveiling & Book Launch that took place yesterday in Thornton:

The Brontë Festival of Women's Writing (IV)

Tomorrow, August 1, the final series of events of this year's Brontë Festival of Women's Writing:

9 - 10am

Festival Creativity Session Sunday

Tickets: Free (Booking needed)

This event will take place via Zoom Meeting.

Bring a morning brew and whatever creative project you’re working on, be that a poem you’ve been editing, a painting you’ve been working on or your knitting, and join other creatives around the world. You will be offered a series of pre-recorded prompts by writers involved in the festival to get your creative ideas moving and you’ll be able to chat to other festival-goers and take forward your creative project in the company of others.

 10 - 11am

Sam Missingham: How Authors Can Empower Themselves

Tickets: £6 (£4 concessions)

This event will take place via Zoom Webinar. You can watch the event live and it will also be recorded and made available to Ticket Holders on our Vimeo channel from Tuesday 3 August 2021 for 7 days (you will be emailed after the event with a link).

Join award-winning book marketer and publishing consultant Sam Missingham as she offers practical tips and ideas. Irrespective of which publishing route authors follow, more and more is expected of them and Sam will highlight the key areas where authors can empower themselves.

11:30 - 12:30

Arifa Akbar: Consumed, a Sister's Story

Tickets: £6 (£4 concessions)

This event will take place via Zoom Webinar. You can watch the event live and it will also be recorded and made available to Ticket Holders on our Vimeo channel from Tuesday 3 August 2021 for 7 days (you will be emailed after the event with a link).

Arifa Akbar’s Consumed, a Sister’s Story has been described as ‘one of this year’s must-read memoirs’. When Arifa discovered that her sister had fallen seriously ill, she assumed there would be a brief spell in hospital and then she'd be home. This was not to be. It was not until the day before she died that the family discovered she was suffering from tuberculosis. 

13:00 - 14:00

Anita Sethi: I Belong Here

Tickets: £6 (£4 concessions)

This event will take place via Zoom Webinar. You can watch the event live and it will also be recorded and made available to Ticket Holders on our Vimeo channel from Tuesday 3 August 2021 for 7 days (you will be emailed after the event with a link).

Chosen as a Guardian literary highlight of 2021, Anita Sethi’s I Belong Here was written after she became the victim of a race hate crime while travelling through Northern England. After the event Anita experienced panic attacks and anxiety. A crushing sense of claustrophobia made her long for wide open spaces, to breathe deeply in the great outdoors. She was intent on not letting her experience stop her travelling freely and without fear. 

The Pennines called to Anita with a magnetic force; although a racist had told her to leave, she felt drawn to further explore the area she regards as her home, to immerse herself deeply in place. Anita’s journey through the natural landscapes of the North is one of reclamation, a way of saying that this is her land too and she belongs in the UK as a brown woman, as much as a white man does. 

Hear Anita talk with writer Helen Mort about a journey that gave her the perspective to reflect upon the important issues encompassed in her experience of abuse including speaking out, gaslighting, trauma, kindness, and notions of strength. Her journey transforms what began as an ugly experience of hate into one offering hope and finding beauty after brutality. 

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Reader, it blew my mind

The Yorkshire Post celebrates the Brontë Festival of Women’s Writing:

The festival marks their legacy and the sisters’ influence today, and also aims to highlight some contemporary challenges. 

Rebecca Yorke, interim director of the Brontë Parsonage Museum, said: “This is shining a light on what the Brontës did, and how they continue to influence, but also giving women a chance to shine.

“Women still face some of the problems that the Brontës did all those years ago; they still take longer to get published and to get the recognition their male counterparts do.

“It links us right back to the Brontës, and shows us they are as relevant today.” (...)

With a theme of Speaking Out, it honours ‘quiet sister’ Anne, known for works such as Agnes Grey, as well as for speaking “difficult truths rather than socially acceptable falsehoods”.

Ms Yorke said: “What we’ve learned is there is a global audience and appreciation for the Brontës, and for literature and for sharing books and the arts. The Brontës couldn’t have imagined that.

“To think that so many years later here we are, linking people across the world, to talk about their legacy and to shine a light on people today, is really special and poignant.

“Our mission is bringing the Brontës to the world, and the world to Yorkshire So reaching so many people is really important.” (Ruby Kitchen)

More on the Brontë Bitch clothing line in The Telegraph & Argus:

Rosalia is keen that the Brontë Bitch name shouldn’t be misconstrued.
“The brand identity is by no means meant in a derogatory way – nor is it ‘name calling’ of the illustrious Brontë sisters and their followers,” she says.
“I’ve been a fan of the Brontës from an early age – when I lived close by in Ingrow.
“My friends and I used to spend time on the cobbled streets, in the shops and on the moors.
“In 1999 I moved to London for a career in fashion and music public relations and never thought I would return – but since 2014 I’ve been resettled in Brontë Country.
“This place is rich in history, surrounded by the beautiful rolling countryside and the Brontë moors – it’s one of my favourite places in the world.”
The Brontë Bitch logo was created by Utley-based independent graphic designer, Anna Cleary.
“A provocative name requires a provocative logo,” she said. “And I needed to soften the word ‘bitch’ somehow, hence the kisses. It’s brave and it’s sassy and I am a big fan of putting the cat amongst the pigeons!”
The first in a series of designs features the quote, “your will shall decide your destiny”, from Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.
The frame was inspired by the letter ‘o’ taken from Brontë, and the purple-coloured word 'bitch’ by the heather of the moors.
A second design will draw its inspiration from Emily Brontë and Top Withens and her love of animals, whilst a third will be based on brother Branwell. (Allistair Shand)

The legacy of Jane Eyre in Bookriot:

One of the most impactful literature classes I took in college was a simple, 100-level class: “British Literature: 1850–Present.” Anglophile book nerds have all probably taken this class, along with its less popular sibling, “British Literature: 1000–1850.” (...)

But the professor, a newly-minted PhD in her first official position, had other ideas than the usual Dickens to Wilde and on through the drawing room dramas of British literature.

Instead, she decided to teach us a visceral lesson on the legacy of Jane Eyre by choosing works that are based — directly or loosely — on Brontë’s seminal tale. We spent the entire semester looping book after book back to Jane, to the madwoman in the attic and physical manifestations of inner turmoil, to disapproving aunts and dead best friends. (...)

To borrow a phrase: Reader, it blew my mind.

What is it about Miss Eyre that keeps us coming back to her story? Personally, I will never pass up a strong female character, and Jane’s particular brand of iron-clad will is immensely satisfying. Everyone underestimates her at every turn, and yet she simply continues forward, doing what she believes is right and necessary. She believes in herself, wholly and without reservation. (Tika Viteri)

Khaleej Times has a few doubts about Jane's decisions: 

The women in these classics were impossibly romanticised. Jane Eyre was a figure of resilience. But why does she have to return to the man who has kept a monumental secret from her, my mind would wonder. (Anamika Chatterjee)

We empathize with the writer David Peace when he says in The Guardian:

The book I’m ashamed not to have read
I’m constantly aware of how many books I have not read, particularly from other continents and cultures, and of how little time there is to read all that I would wish. However, the shame comes when I then find myself rereading Wuthering Heights, Bleak House, The Quiet American or Tinker Tailor for the umpteenth time. And knowing it won’t be the last time, either.

 A mystery lady in an old photo in The Craven Herald & Pioneer:

It is most probable that she was Margaret Cooper, widow of Reverend Henry Cooper of Embsay. Margaret was the niece of Christopher Sidgwick, the mill owner who originally constructed the building as a school for his "half-timers" (children who spent half their time in school and half at the factory). (...)
Her father was John Benson Sidgwick, of Stone Gappe Hall, Lothersdale (where novelist Charlotte Brontë was briefly a governess for the Sidgwick children), but the family had in 1847 moved to Embsay Kirk when Margaret was in her early teens. They later lived at West Riddlesden Hall, before Margaret returned to Embsay as the vicar's wife. John is said to have been the model for Mr Rochester in Charlotte Brontë's novel, "Jane Eyre". (Jane Lunnon / Viv Mason)

Screenrant has a list of best (really?) musicals based on literary sources:

Heathcliff, written by and starring Cliff Richard, is an adaptation of the novel Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. Heathcliff's personal story is expanded upon, though much of the dialogue is from the novel. Richard released a studio album of the music, featuring Olivia Newton-John as part of a duet.

The musical played at several locations around London. It was popular with fans, but not critics. The last showing was in May 1997, and an original cast recording was released in late 1996. (Noemi Arellano-Summer)

Forty years ago, on August 1st, 1981, MTV was born. And Stereogum lists each clip from that very first day. Including:

Kate Bush - "Wuthering Heights"
In Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights (a book I have not read), Catherine Earnshaw is abandoned by her love, Heathcliff, and dies while giving birth to another man’s child. Kate Bush also hadn’t read the book, when, at age 18, she saw the movie on the telly and immediately went to work composing what would become her debut single. When it was released in March 1978, the song shot up to number 1, making Bush the first woman to top the UK charts with a self-penned song. Another accolade: Bush may have been the first and only woman to star solo in an MTV video on its maiden day. In this “Wuthering Heights” video — there are two versions — Bush is wearing a white dress. This is the first version made for British audiences. The second, more well-known version made for US audiences has Bush in a red dress. Both feature Bush’s limber swaying, her choreography somewhere between drunk ballet and interpretive dancing. The “white dress” version trades the wily windy moors for an indoor set replete with fog and bad special effects. Bush’s intent was to look like a ghost and this one is definitely more haunting than the other. However, if the TikTok teens are gonna bring back the dance, they’ll pilfer the moves from the “red dress” video. In hindsight, it’s the better of the two. But “white dress” is still arresting. Bush, who delayed the release of the “Wuthering Heights single because she didn’t like the cover art EMI chose, is as dedicated to her aesthetic as her sound. (Alex Wexelman)

 Caitlin Moran mentions this video clip in The Times:

Although I don’t underestimate the impact of any art form, “changed my life” is a big ask for a pop video. I mean, Kate Bush’s Wuthering Heights definitely changed the way I thought about my nightie. At the age of four I realised it could be used as daywear, while spinning round and round and screeching what I thought, at the time, was the name of Kate’s great love: “Healthcliff.”.

Far Out Magazine revisits the films of David Niven:

Wuthering Heights (William Wyler, 1939)
Three years later, in 1939, David Niven continued his dogged persistence to reach the industry heights, working through Samuel Goldwyn to appear in multiple minor roles including John Ford’s Four Men and a Prayer, before finding success with Wuthering Heights.
William Wyler’s moody adaptation of Emily Brontë’s classic novel starred David Niven, not as Cathy or Heathcliff, but instead the feeble Edgar, to which Niven wasn’t best pleased. Putting him through 40 takes of his first scene in the film, Niven’s time on Wuthering Heights would prove to be extremely valuable, learning considerably from director William Wyler.  Eventually, the film would prove a massive success. (Calum Russell)

Femina (France) visits the 'austere parsonage of the Brontë sisters':

Il faut se rappeler la dureté de la vie au début du XIXe siècle pour comprendre la portée de l’œuvre des sœurs Brontë… et l’importance de leur foyer. Charlotte, Emily et Anne ont vécu à peu près à la même époque que Dickens, histoire de poser le décor. Le Royaume-Uni compte alors un peu plus de 10 millions d’habitants (contre 68 aujourd’hui), et si la démographie est en forte hausse, la mortalité y est très élevée. Père de six enfants, le révérend Patrick Brontë voit sa femme emportée par un cancer alors que sa cadette n’a même pas 2 ans. Puis c’est la tuberculose qui lui enlève ses deux filles aînées, en 1825. Dans ce contexte tragique, la maison familiale de Haworth, petit village du Yorkshire, représente un havre de paix et un refuge pour la fratrie survivante, à l’imagination débordante. (Valérie Fournier) (Translation)

Both Charlotte and Emily are part of this list of 'immersive romance novels' as published in Onedio (Turkey): 

Emily Bronte – Uğultulu Tepeler

Bronte kardeşler, kadının edebiyatla uğraşmasının hoş görülmediği bu yıllarda, önce erkek kimliğiyle şiirler yazmış sonra kendi adlarıyla, klasikler arasında yer alacak üç önemli romana imza atmışlar. Emily Bronte 1848'de öldüğünde dünya edebiyatının en güzel yapıtlarından birini, ilk ve tek romanı Uğultulu Tepeler'i ardında bırakmış. Bu Victoria Dönemi romanı, kimine göre dünyanın gelmiş geçmiş en büyük aşk romanı, kimine göre her okunuşunda değişik tatlar veren çağlar ötesi bir eser. Sevgi, kin, nefret, intikam, tutku gibi güçlü duygularla örülü bu gençlik öyküsü, aynı zamanda marazi bir aşkın hikayesi. (...)

Charlotte Bronte – Jane Eyre

Bronte Kardeşlerden Charlotte Bronte’nin Jane Eyre kitabı klasik baş yapıt aşk kitapları arasında yer alıyor. Victoria Dönemi'nde geçen Jane Eyre, birçoklarınca kadın hak ve özgürlüklerine sahip çıkan ilk romanlardan biri olarak kabul edilir. Zorlu bir yaşam süren yapayalnız bir genç kadının güçlü bir kadına dönüşmesinin öyküsüdür. Jane Eyre, erkek egemen toplumdaki konumuna gözü pek yaklaşımı ve şiirsel, duygusal bir gerçekçilikle harmanlayan öncü olmayı başarmış bir eser. (Ekin Avci Iltir) (Translation)

Red 17 (in Spanish) only includes Jane Eyre, though. 

Cinemagavia (in Spanish) reviews the film How to Build a Girl:

En esencia, el alter ego de Caitlin Moran es una adolescente de los años noventa, con todo lo que ello conlleva. Entre sus ídolos están las hermanas Brontë (excepto Anne), Jo March y Sigmund Freud. (Ana Pastor) (Translation)

Il Corriere Della Sera (Italy) publishes the obituary of the writer and publisher Roberto Calasso:

Alla biblioteca del nonno, il bambino Roberto attingeva per avvicinarsi alla letteratura: la prima rivelazione gli venne da un’edizione economica di Cime tempestose, grazie alla quale capì che la lettura poteva sostituirsi al gioco. (Paolo DiStefano) (Translation)

We read in Friuli Sera (Italy) that in tonight's edition of the Percoto Canta singing contest, a participant will sing Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights. Most appropriate. 

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Happy 203rd, Emily!

Born this day in 1818, Emily would become the so-called Sphinx of English Literature. Despite - or because of - her silence about herself she may be the Brontë sibling to have changed more with the times and has been used to champion practically every cause. They even tried to get her own novel away from her!

We know precious little about Emily and that little usually has a mysterious air about it. Surely Emily was not conventional and not easily understood. Wuthering Heights proves that. When it comes to looking at Emily we not only study her from what we know about her but also by what we don't know: her Gondal prose written for many years - well into adulthood - along with Anne, her mysterious second novel, her imagination, her rambles on the moors, the reasons behind Wuthering Heights...

We humbly suggest that to celebrate her birthday you not only read her novel - or fragments of it - but also her poems, which are less well-known but in a way help us understand the mind that gave birth to such a powerful novel as Wuthering Heights and are a delight to read.

(Originally published in 2006)

EDIT: Libreriamo (Italy) posts about why should read Wuthering Heights:

Ricordiamo oggi l’anniversario della scrittrice inglese Emily Brontë, autrice di “Cime tempestose”. Emily era la più celebre delle tre sorelle Brontë, tutte con la passione per la scrittura. Emily  nacque a Thornton il 30 luglio del 1818 e morì a Haworth il 19 dicembre 1848. “Cime tempestose”, seppur poco apprezzato dalla critica del tempo perché andava contro i criteri letterari dell’epoca, divenne un indimenticabile capolavoro della letteratura classica. (Alice Turiami) (Translation)

More tributes on Actualno (Russia), cba24n (Argentina), Calgary Herald (Canada), Garrison Keillor's Writer's Almanac,

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Helen in Quincy

Helen is a new opera based on Anne Brontë's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall which is premiered today, July 30, in Quincy, IL:

Muddy River Opera presents

Helen

Music by Garrett Hope. 

Libretto by Steven Soebbing

Friday, July 30th at 7:00PM

Sunday, August 1st at 2:00PM

John Wood Community College - Mary Ellen Orr Auditorium

1301 South 48th Street

Quincy, IL 62305

Cast members include Muddy River Opera Company favorites, Lisa Blake, Penelope Shumate, and Steven Soebbing with first time MROC performer Rahim Mandal from Chicago completing the cast.  David Galant returns as Conductor of a talented orchestra of area musicians. Stage direction is by Valerie Hernandez with Randy Wolfmeyer as Stage Manager, Garris Brown as Technical Director and Lana Anderson serving as rehearsal pianist. (Muddy River News)

Further information and pictures in The Herald Whig.

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The Brontë Festival of Women's Writing (III)

These are the events for the third day (July 31) of the Brontë Festival of Women's Writing:

1 - 2pm

Lip Service in Conversation
Tickets: £6 (£4 concessions)
This event will take place via Zoom Webinar. You can watch the event live and it will also be recorded and made available to Ticket Holders on our Vimeo channel from Tuesday 3 August 2021 for 7 days (you will be emailed after the event with a link).

Coined the “The Laurel and Hardy of literary deconstruction” by The Independent, LipService make original comedy shows from a distinctly female perspective and we have them here in conversation with Jo Fletcher-Cross to tell us about how this award-winning comedy duo came together.

2.30 - 3.30pm

Namina Forna: The Gilded Ones

Tickets: £6 (£4 concessions), £2 for 16-25s

This event will take place via Zoom Webinar. You can watch the event live and it will also be recorded and made available to Ticket Holders on our Vimeo channel from Tuesday 3 August 2021 for 7 days (you will be emailed after the event with a link).

 

In a very special event, the festival is joined by best-selling author of the epic fantasy YA novel The Gilded Ones, Namina Forna, in conversation with writer Natasha Bowen. While growing up in Sierra Leone, Namina was told magical stories about the folklore of Africa but when she moved to the US, she found this magic disappeared and the Black characters that she read about were often written as outdated stereotypes. So she decided to create her own characters and now Namina loves building fantastical worlds and telling stories with fierce female leads. 

2.30 - 4.30pm

Clare Shaw Writing for Wellbeing Workshop: Poetry of Harsh Landscapes

This event will take place in an outdoor setting at the Brontë Parsonage Museum.

Join Clare Shaw for an outdoor poetry workshop in the historic graveyard of St Michael's and All Angels. Adjacent to the Brontë Parsonage Museum, Haworth churchyard has been in use for over 700 years and is the last resting place of over 40,000 souls - including Charlotte, Emily and Branwell, who are buried beneath the church. The Brontes lived in a tough landscape, and these are tough times. We'll draw on the sisters' poetry

 and prose to show how beauty and solace can be found in even the harshest of landscapes, and we'll find inspiration there for our own writing.

Suitable for new and experienced writers alike.

16:15 - 17:15

Namina Forna, Holly Bourne & Lucy Powrie in conversation

Tickets: £6 (£4 concessions), £2 for 16-25s

This event will take place via Zoom Webinar. You can watch the event live and it will also be recorded and made available to Ticket Holders on our Vimeo channel from Tuesday 3 August 2021 for 7 days (you will be emailed after the event with a link).

 

Three of the most exciting Young Adult writers come together from different locations around the world to share their writing lives with the festival. Namina Forna, Holly Bourne and Lucy Powrie talk about creating strong female leads, connecting with young audiences and what’s next for them and their writing.

 7 - 8.15pm

Anne Brontë: Treasures of the Collection with Samira Ahmed

Tickets: £8 (£6 concessions)

This event will take place via Zoom Webinar. You can watch the event live and it will also be recorded and made available to Ticket Holders on our Vimeo channel from Tuesday 3 August 2021 for 7 days (you will be emailed after the event with a link).

In 2018, Samira Ahmed visited the Brontë Parsonage Museum library and spent the afternoon viewing letters, belongings and relics belonging to Anne Brontë, developing an interest in Anne's life and work that had started during her time as an undergraduate. Now, in this special event, Samira will revisit these iconic and poignant collection items with Audience Development Officer Lauren Livesey, discussing how these artefacts help us to shape and develop our understanding of Anne's spirit and fortitude. The conversation will bring to the fore the items and issues that preoccupied Anne in the 1830s, and which continue in many cases to have multiple resonances with contemporary audiences.

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They went up in flames

JSTOR Daily speculates wildly (and nicely) on Emily Brontë's second novel:

One can only imagine what was going through Charlotte Brontë’s mind the day she knelt by the blazing fireplace in Haworth Parsonage, her family home, with her dead sister Emily’s unfinished manuscript clutched in her hands. Did she look at that purposefully tiny, yet passionately scribbled handwriting, and feel the tears rush to her eyes? Did it remind her of the countless afternoons she and her three siblings, all now “gone like dreams,” spent penning stories about their childhood imaginary worlds? Were the papers stamped with flour fingerprints from Emily’s never idle hands, the product of the writer-housekeeper busily moving back and forth from the writing desk to the kitchen, to the writing desk again?

Whatever Charlotte Brontë was thinking, whatever was present on those pages, they went the way of Rochester’s family home: up in flames. (...)

For my part, I remain convinced that Charlotte destroyed the second manuscript not to spite Emily, but to protect her, even at the cost of literary history. We Brontë fanatics are left only to speculate on what the book was about, but at least we can feel gratitude for the existence of Wuthering Heights, arguably the leading masterpiece of the nineteenth century, and at least a wonderfully complete novel. (Emily Zarevich)

Keighley News talks about a new merchandise range inspired by the Brontës:

A Haworth woman has launched a capsule merchandise range inspired by the Bronte sisters.
Brontë Bitch features illustrations on vibrantly-coloured tote bags and T-shirts.
Behind the venture is Rosalia Ferrara, who came-up with the idea during lockdown.
“It came to me out of frustration really during the pandemic last year – from not being able to source a cool Brontë sisters T-shirt for myself to wear,” she said. “And trust me, I tried – after all we did have a lot of time on our hands! (...)
Rosalia is keen that the Brontë Bitch name shouldn’t be misconstrued.
“The brand identity is by no means meant in a derogatory way – nor is it ‘name calling’ of the illustrious Brontë sisters and their followers,” she says.
“I’ve been a fan of the Brontës from an early age – when I lived close by in Ingrow. (...)
Brontë Bitch will be among independent creatives showcasing their work at a pop-up event in the Old School Room – in Church Street, Haworth – on Saturday and Sunday August 7 and 8, from 10am to 4pm. (Alistair Shand)

BookRiot lists Jane Eyre retellings: 

Jane Eyre is one of my favorite classics, even though at times it is silly (all the wiggling eyebrows) or problematic (Rochester is super predatory and I hate him). But still, I cannot get enough of Jane Eyre retellings, and when I see a book billed as one, I hit that “buy” button so fast that Rochester has barely had time to stick me in the attic before getting a new governess. (...)
If you’re as obsessed with the eyebrows as me, you’ll want to add these Jane Eyre retellings or Jane Eyre–inspired books to your TBR stat. Not all of these are totally true to the original, so expect some surprises, even if you think you know the story already. (Cassie Gutman)

Eastern Eye interviews the author Aliya Ali-Afzal who chooses her favourite books:

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë: One of my favourite novels and one I dip into whenever I need comfort or inspiration. The story about an orphaned young girl growing up in 19th century England and her path to becoming an independent, empowered woman was ground-breaking at the time. I love how the book is a page-turner, a romance, and a gothic horror tale all rolled into one. (Priya Mulji)

Gulf News and parenting advice. Creative playing is always good:

A famously interesting example of such imaginative play is the literary Brontë siblings’ construction of a fantasy worlds called the Glass Town and Angria around their new toy soldiers, writing dozens of books of prose and poetry together. The four siblings were aged between six and ten when they started, with Charlotte being the eldest, and wrote these for many years following, going on to become famed writers. (Sraddha Sabu)

Vents Magazine talks about the new video clip by Eleanor K:

Eleanor K will further explore the song’s theme when its official video is released next Wednesday. She stars alongside actor Jack Fox (‘Sanditon’, ‘Rivera’) as a mysterious figure in an enigmatic romance, its desolate photography hinting at the gothic, Yorkshire Moors atmosphere of ‘Wuthering Heights’. The story mimics the relationship that the couple have in real life. The video was directed by the fashion photographer and filmmaker Rhys Frampton. (RJ Frometa)

Mor.bo ( in Spanish) is listing the best songs by Kate Bush:

Wuthering Heights

La canción fue inspirada en gran medida por la adaptación de 1967 de Wuthering Heights, la novela de Emily Brontë, hecha por la BBC: mientras Londres estaba en su climax punk, Kate Bush creaba esta pista que se convertiría en su primer single y definitivamente en uno de los más icónicos de su carrera. Fue publicado el 20 de enero de 1978, alcanzando el número uno en las listas del Reino Unido, en donde permaneció durante cuatro semanas. Además, ¿Cómo olvidar el video del tema? Su empleo de la danza, la mímica y la teatralidad comenzó a anunciar una nueva era para la música pop.(Mirangie Alayon) (Translation)

Unforgettable male literary characters in SoloLibri (Italy):

Un altro grande indimenticabile è Heathcliff di Emily Brontë. L’eroe romantico e maledetto di Cime tempestose non ha eguali: crudele, misterioso, violento e senza pietà, un animale in caccia. Anima tormentata che calpesta tutto e tutti pur di ottenere ciò che desidera, mette in ginocchio ben due famiglie in un gioco micidiale di vendette concatenate. Il male fatto persona. Spesso travisato come uomo passionale che farebbe di tutto per amore, Heathcliff è davvero diabolico. Un personaggio così non si dimentica facilmente. (Serena di Bautista) (Translation)

Being Fictional reviews The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins.

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The Brontë Festival of Women’s Writing 2021 (II)

This is the list of events for the second day (July 30) of the Brontë Festival of Women’s Writing 2021:

12.30 - 1.30pm
Festival Creativity Session Friday
Tickets: Free (Booking needed)
This event will take place via Zoom Meeting.

Bring a morning brew and whatever creative project you’re working on, be that a poem you’ve been editing, a painting you’ve been working on or your knitting, and join other creatives around the world. You will be offered a series of pre-recorded prompts by writers involved in the festival to get your creative ideas moving and you’ll be able to chat to other festival-goers and take forward your creative project in the company of others.

2 - 3pm

Draw-along with Isabel Greenberg

This event will take place via Zoom Webinar. 

Draw along with Isabel Greenberg as you create a fantasy world of your own inspired by the Brontë’s children's imaginary kingdoms. All you need is a pen and a sheet of paper. Isabel is the writer and illustrator behind Glass Town, a graphic novel that dives into the Brontë’s earliest stories, as well as The One Hundred Nights of Hero and The Encyclopaedia of Early Earth.

2.15 - 3.30pm

Liz Flanagan Creative Writing Workshop (13 - 16 year olds) 

Tickets: £5

This workshop is for 13 - 16 year olds and will take place via Zoom. Full details of how to join will be sent to you once you have booked your place.

Join award-winning YA and children’s author Liz Flanagan in this creative writing workshop for 13-16 year olds. Liz is the author of Eden Summer which was nominated for the Carnegie Medal. Her novel Dragon Daughter won the 2019 Leeds Book Award and the Calderdale Book of the Year and its sequel, Rise of the Shadow Dragons, was published in May 2020. 

 

Follow in the footsteps of the Brontës as you begin to imagine fantasy worlds peopled with memorable characters. Liz will lead participants through a series of informal prompts to generate ideas, create believable, memorable characters and you’ll be invited to begin a new story idea of your own. She will help you to kickstart your story, to shape and structure it and to make it fizz with life.

4 - 5pm
The Brontës and Creativity, with Layla Khoo & Isabel Greenberg
Tickets: £6 (£4 concessions)
This event will take place via Zoom Webinar. You can watch the event live and it will also be recorded and made available to Ticket Holders on our Vimeo channel from Tuesday 3 August 2021 for 7 days (you will be emailed after the event with a link).

Join artists Layla Khoo and Isabel Greenberg in conversation about how the Brontës have inspired their work and why the family continues to be a focus for creativity. Both artists are currently exhibited at the Brontë Parsonage Museum have used the Brontës as a source for their work.
Layla and Isabel will be in conversation with Yvette Huddleston, an author and journalist specialising in the arts. She has written extensively on film, theatre, literature and visual art for a wide range of national and regional publications.

6 - 7pm

Château Ghoul 

Tickets: £15

This event will be managed by Lip Service and will take place on Zoom.

It will last around 50 minutes and only 1 ticket is required per device. This event has integrated BSL, captioning and an Audio Description option.

Brontë Parsonage stalwarts LipService Theatre, present a multimedia haunted house thriller delivered over Zoom.

Château Ghoul is East Yorkshire's go-to boutique hotel offering themed weekends. Our hosts Brian and Brenda Binns or B&B as they are known, introduce a cornucopia of events: Blasted with the Brontes, a guide to the Yorkshire Moors; their supernatural sensation - Psychic Attraction, (like Fatal Attraction but without the rabbit), the Tour de Yorkshire Lycra Festival, and the ever popular 1970’s Shanga Langa Waddy Ding Dong experience. Guaranteed fun for all the family, the only trouble is – the guests keep dying... 

The online audience get involved making origami windmills which they twirl in their Zoom windows to conjure up an authentic Bronte wind.

8 - 9.15pm
Irenosen Okojie: Journeys into the Fantastical
Ticket prices: £8 (£6 concessions)

This event will take place via Zoom Webinar. You can watch the event live and it will also be recorded and made available to Ticket Holders on our Vimeo channel from Tuesday 3 August 2021 for 7 days (you will be emailed after the event with a link).

Join critically acclaimed Nigerian British writer, Irenosen Okojie, as she talks about journeying into fantastical worlds in her writing with writer, publisher and curator Sarah Shin. Bursting with imagery and strange creatures, Irenosen's prose conjures worlds that mix the otherworldly and the mundane in a unique and irresistible manner. In this special event, we relate Irenosen's word building to Gondal, the fictional North Pacific island invented by 12-year old Emily Brontë and her younger sister Anne in 1831. Gondal’s landscape is similar to Emily’s native Yorkshire moors, but also reminiscent of the Scottish highland setting of the works of her favourite author Sir Walter Scott.
How does a writer create a world that will entice, enchant and even frighten their reader - how do they move away from the limits of the present day environment in which they find themselves and create magical and phantasmagorical universes?

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A Total Treat

Some of the 'most stylish' Financial Times collaborators select their favourite books/playlists/podcasts:

Bay Garnett, stylist 

I didn’t even know Anne Brontë’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall existed until a friend recommended it, knowing that Jane Eyre is my favourite novel. It was a total treat to go back into that gothic world that the sisters created.

Burnley Express recommends a staycation in Burnley:

Hurstwood Hall Guest House is another Burnley gem, located in the stunning hamlet of Hurstwood.
The guest house dates back to 1579 and is Grade II-listed, making it an impressive place to stay. As a side, it’s also featured on Four in a Bed and the BBC production of Anna Bronte’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. (Rachel Bayley)

CumbriaCrack also recommends The Ambleside Literary Walking Tour:

The Ambleside Literary Walking Tour details the town’s long history of literary associations through a half-day walk, accompanied by words from the many celebrated poets and novelists who visited or lived in the town, including the Wordsworths, John Keats, Charlotte Brontë and Charles Dickens

Vogue (Australia) on books to read before you turn 30. No Brontës per se, but some indirect mentions:

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
“Devouring a few of the classics (Austen, Brontë, Fitzgerald) is practically a prerequisite before you turn 30. (Jessica Montague) (...)
A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf (...) “Her thesis? That all women need is an income, and a room to themselves. Give them independence, give them power, and they can enjoy the greatest privilege of all, from which they were barred for centuries—to create. Throughout, Woolf pays homage to her predecessors (Austen, the Brontës), and ultimately, will inspire you to pick up your own pen, and assert authority over your narrative.

The Young Folks and soft boys in literature:

For literally centuries, we have worshipped the tall, dark, brooding men as our romantic heroes. Look at Mr. Darcy or Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights as examples. They spend most of the book moping around, staring dramatically into the distance and waiting for the heroine to love them. (Abby Petree)

L'Espresso (Italy) and how literature has to deal with horror:

A sostenere la tesi, pure un filosofo suo connazionale come Georges Bataille che ne ha ricavato un saggio, “La letteratura e il male”, in cui analizza le opere di Emily Brontë, Charles Baudelaire, Jules Michelet, William Blake, Sade, Marcel Proust, Franz Kafka, Jean Genet per considerare che la scrittura è legata in modo inseparabile al male e al senso di colpa. Ovvio: «Gli essere umani non sono angeli». (Gigi Riva) (Translation)

MangiaLibri (Italy) reviews Girl with Dove by Sally Bayley:

Sally sovrappone con naturalezza il corso delle sue vicende con quelle di Mrs. Marple, David Copperfield e Jane Eyre, scopre la fragilità della sua visione delle cose, cerca di fuggire dal dolore estraniandosi, ma alla fine scopre anche che questa passione per le storie libresche sconfina nella patologia e anziché avvicinarla al mondo in carne ed ossa, fatto di forti emozioni che sanno anche essere terribili, l’allontana. (Massimiliano De Conca) (Translation)

The Bora Booktique reviews Jane Eyre. 

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10th Brontë Festival of Women’s Writing 2021 (I)

Tomorrow, July 29, is the opening of the 10th Brontë Festival of Women’s Writing 2021 (July 29- August 1).

Hollie McNish: Slug...and other things I’ve been told to hate
Thursday 29 July, 8 - 9.15pm
This event will take place via Zoom Webinar. You can watch the event live and it will also be recorded and made available to Ticket Holders on our Vimeo channel from Tuesday 3 August 2021 for 7 days (you will be emailed after the event with a link).

Join Ted Hughes Award winner, poet Hollie McNish, as she speaks to playwright and Brontë biographer Samantha Ellis and reads from her much anticipated new collection: Slug...and other things I've been told to hate. Expect strong language and adult content ribbon wrapped in carefully and caringly sculpted poetry.

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Minding the Cows while reading Jane Eyre

New Humanist vindicates the poet Elizabeth Barrett Browing and mentions how in 1973 The Oxford Anthology of English Literature's editorial team:

excluded her work from their anthology, along with that of Jane Austen, George Eliot, Mary Shelley and Virginia Woolf, and all the Brontë novels. In total, less than 0.5 per cent of the volume was devoted to writing by women. (The same vanishingly small percentage, I notice, that in beer counts as alcohol-free.) (Fiona Sampson)

Southern Rhode Island Newspaper talks about a recent local fair:

What’s always fun for me is to watch a kind of evolution at play here: farming used to be a mostly male business, with women playing an important but completely different role geared towards support and sustenance—a role celebrated at the arts and crafts exhibits. Now, there are farms named for the “Grumpy Girls” and the “Four Daughters,” and a young woman minding the cows was reading Jane Eyre instead of Farm Journal. While the best-of-show apple pie was baked by a woman, she had male competition, and that was equally the case among the traditionally female categories, from quilting to fabric arts. (Bruce Fellman)

Sportsbeat talks about the British triathlete Georgia Taylor-Brown's performance at the Olympic Games:

Yorkshire’s unpredictable blusters could not be further from Tokyo’s sticky humidity - there is a reason Emily Brontë did not set Wuthering Heights in Harajuku - so Taylor-Brown got creative. (Rachel Steinberg)

Business Insider, El Territorio (Argentina), Ideal (Spain) and Žena (Croatia) recommend Jane Eyre:

Jane is an orphaned young woman who, after finishing school, is offered a governess position at Thornfield Hall, where she meets and begins to fall in love with the mysterious and brooding Mr. Rochester. When the two decide to get married, secrets from Mr. Rochester's past are quickly revealed and Jane risks heartbreak once again. This novel is gothic and romantic, but readers still love this vivid 1846 (sic) classic today for Jane's strong, intelligent, and independent character. (Katherine Fiorillo)

Pasada ya su complicada infancia de huérfana, Jane Eyre, logra el puesto de institutriz para educar a la hija de Rochester. Poco a poco, el amor irá tejiendo su red entre ellos, pero la casa y la vida de Rochester guardan un estremecedor y terrible misterio. (Translation)

Con una prosa demorada, preciosista en el detalle y ágil en los momentos esenciales, Charlotte Brontë, una de las dos hermanas de la famosísima Emily (la autora de 'Cumbres borrascosas') desarrolla una historia argumentalmente bien construida que refleja las contradicciones de la sociedad victoriana. No defraudará a las adolescentes que, como aquella quinceañera, inician su andadura de amor por las letras. Tampoco a cualquier lector/a que busquen pasar un rato entretenido rescatando a una escritora que merece mayor protagonismo del que le ha dado la Historia de la Literatura. (Remedios Sánchez) (Translation)

"Jane Eyre" je engleski roman nastao 1847. godine tijekom romantizma. Kad je objavljen, kao autor je naveden Currer Bell, što je bio pseudonim kojim je Charlotte Brontë krila svoj spol. Roman "Jane Eyre" u svoje je vrijeme bio radikalno djelo jer se temelji na pretpostavci da žene imaju složen unutarnji život, baš kao i muškarci, te da nisu samo površna bića koja definira njihova vanjština i ljepota. "Jane Eyre" izvanredna je priča o jednoj od najneovisnijih i najsamosvojnijih junakinja svjetske književnosti. Siromašna i fizički ne suviše atraktivna Jane Eyre započinje život kao usamljeno siroče u kući tetke koja ju mrzi. Kad odraste postaje guvernanta u Thornfield Hallu, gdje zavoli svojeg poslodavca, bajronovski mračnog i strastvenog gospodina Rochestera, koji se ludo zaljubi u Jane zbog njezine jednostavnosti, otvorenosti i intelektualne znatiželje. No razotkrivanje strašne, mučne tajne razdvaja strastveno zaljubljene junake. Jedan od najslavnijih, najutjecajnijih i najpopularnijih romana svjetske književnosti, iznenađujuće je moderan spoj strasti, romantike, tajnovitosti i napetosti. (Translation)

Concertandco (France) review a recent concert by Cécile McLorin Salvant:

Un répertoire hétéroclite qui va de "la route enchantée" de Trenet et plus proche de nous, "Promises, promises" de Burt Bacharach et Dionne Warwick et surtout du méconnaissable (au début) du "Wuthering heights" de Kate Bush. (Sami) (Translation)

Yesterday's mini crossword at the New York Times contained a Brontë question:

Jane of a Brontë novel

 Finally, an alert for today July 27 in  San Giovanni in Persiceto, Bologna (Italy):

La Biblioteca “G.C. Croce” Sezione Adulti propone “Ritratto di famiglia in brughiera”, coinvolgente incontro con la psicologa e psicoterapeuta Ilaria Datta, che accompagnerà i presenti in un viaggio intimo e appassionante nel cuore di una delle più celebri famiglie letterarie: i Brontë. Fondendo notizie biografiche e brani letterari alle teorie psicologiche junghiane, l’approfondimento si inoltrerà nelle luci e nelle ombre delle personalità di Anne, Branwell, Charlotte e Emily, restituendoci il ritratto di una famiglia eccezionale e normalissima. Informazioni e prenotazioni allo 051.6812961, oppure via mail all’indirizzo bibliocroce@comunepersiceto.it (Gianluca Stanzani in Carta Bianca News) (Translation)

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The Life of Charlotte Brontë. An Introduction

Tomorrow, July 28, a joint event by the Brontë Parsonage Museum and Elizabeth Gaskell's House:

The Life of Charlotte Brontë by Elizabeth Gaskell: An Introduction
A Talk by Sue Newby, Learning Officer at the Brontë Parsonage Museum

7-8pm Wed 28th July 

This event will take place via zoom.  It is a live event and will not be recorded.

The talk will be approx 45 mins long, with time for a short question session afterwards

Welcome to the first in a series of events examining Elizabeth Gaskell's biography of novelist Charlotte Brontë. The Life of Charlotte Brontë told the story of a ‘wild, sad life and the beautiful character that grew out of it’ but was not without controversy when it was first published in 1857. The first biography to be written both by and about a woman writer, it remains a classic of the genre. Discover how Elizabeth's The Life secured the legacy, reputation and myth of Charlotte Brontë after her death.

Part of a series of events by the Brontë Parsonage Museum in partnership with Elizabeth Gaskell’s House.

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Lists, favourites and ink

The Scotsman does a Lancashire road trip:

Local attractions include Wycoller Country Park, a favourite with the Brontë Sisters who referred to many of its landmarks in Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre. (Dean Mellor)

The Times mentions some families with 'ink in the blood':

The Brontë sisters, Emily, Charlotte, and Anne, wrote Wuthering Heights, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and Jane Eyre while their brother Branwell translated the first book of Horace's Odes from Latin.

Newsroom (New Zealand) publishes The 2021 Whitcoulls Top 100 list of books which includes

63 Jane Eyre Charlotte Brontë

and Intolerancia Diario (México) publishes a similar list by Librería Pórrua with the most read books in the pandemic:

Cumbres borrascosas, de Emily Jane Brontë. Esta novela que escandalizó a la crítica literaria de su época, se presentan las violentas relaciones personales sin ningún afán moralista. La escritora desmitificó un mundo de costumbres taciturnas e ideas de respetabilidad. (Translation)

Some Indian students talk about these most unusual holidays in The Tribune (India):

The most amazing thing to them was how my brother and I were attending school online at home. I spent most of my time choreographing small dances, taking my Bharatanatyam lessons and reading classic books like Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice and Little women. (Snigdha)

Animal Político (México) talks about Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman:

Lleva una vida rutinaria muy bien organizada. Los fines de semana toma vodka. No le preocupa su aspecto físico y utiliza ropa cómoda para ir al trabajo. Lee las novelas de Jane Austen y Charlotte Brontë, escucha programas de radio y resuelve crucigramas. Es una mujer inteligente. (Rubén Aguilar) (Translation)

Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung (Germany) describes the Most Wuthering Heights Ever Day in Velbert. AnneBrontë.org posts about Mary Taylor's views on Jane Eyre.

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Translating Emily Brontë into Arabic

 A new Brontë-related scholar paper just published:

On translating Emily Brontë’s style in Wuthering Heights into Arabic
Fatima Muhaidat
Babel, 16 Jul 2021
https://doi.org/10.1075/babel.00231.muh

Translating Emily Brontë’s (1818–1848) Wuthering Heights (1847) into Arabic is a complex and multifaceted task. This paper explores the challenges involved in this task by discussing distinctive features of Brontë’s style and their counterparts in Mamdouh Haqqi’s Arabic translation of the novel. Stylistic features under focus include lexis, figurative language, and structure. As for Brontë’s lexis, it intricately knits elements like characters, setting, and themes. To take their readers to the unpredictable world of Wuthering Heights, translators try to find Arabic equivalents suggesting the associations and connotations of the Source Text (ST) style. Among the obstacles translators need to overcome are lexical gaps, as some lexicalized thoughts and experiences in English have no lexicalized equivalents in Arabic. Resorting to paraphrases may result in sacrificing the compactness of the source text (ST) and losing some shades of meaning. Further complications result from dealing with figurative language. Conveying Brontë’s imagery, personifications, and references to abstract notions in terms of material objects requires thoughtful consideration. Furthermore, the structure of Brontë’s language significantly expresses characters’ attitudes and other subtle traits. Less vivacious translations are expected when the function of expressions in the ST eludes translators’ attention. Throughout the discussion, suggestions are made to provide readers of the text in Arabic with better access to the ST. At the same time, the researcher acclaims Haqqi’s translation which reflects a considerable effort to make a landmark of English/world literature accessible to Arab readers.

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Drop on-the-nose references

Elite Daily has a Twilight-related article:

Twilight saga author Stephenie Meyer isn’t afraid to drop on-the-nose references to classic love stories like Romeo and Juliet and Wuthering Heights, but Twilight honestly works best when it leans into the old-fashioned gothic romance it’s riffing on. (Abby Monteil)

Courrier Picard (France) interviews the journalist Kady Adoum-Douass:

Grande lectrice, elle se replonge cet été dans Les Hauts de Hurlevent, d’Emily Brontë, un roman que son instituteur inoublié lui avait d’ailleurs fait découvrir. (Nicolas Totet) (Translation)

Infobae (Argentina) mentions the previous book by Laura Ramos:

A partir de su espectacular trabajo como biógrafa de los hermanos Branwell, Charlotte, Emily y Anne Brontë, en su celebrado libro Infernales, que le llevó ocho años de investigación y trabajo, Laura Ramos inició una nueva etapa de su carrera que ahora se consolida con la aparición de Las señoritas, un libro en el que reconstruye la vida de veinte de las sesenta y una maestras norteamericanas que llegaron a la Argentina entre 1869 y 1898, a partir del plan educativo de Domingo Faustino Sarmiento. (Hinde Pomeraniec) (Translation)

Ravenna e Dintorni (Italy) interviews Eugenio Baroncelli, author of  Libro di furti. 301 vite rubate alla mia:

Erika Baldini: C’è qualche criterio che la guida? Voglio dire a un certo punto un libro finisce, deve pur fare delle scelte su quale personaggio o episodio inserire.

E.B.: No, non c’è criterio. O meglio, di volta in volta appare un criterio ma senza che io me lo sia imposto prima. Lo diventa. Faccio un esempio: leggo una biografia di 400 pagine sulla signora Emily Brontë e poi scopro, al di là della qualità della biografia, che ci sono dei personaggi secondari. Allora ne prendo uno avvolto nell’oscurità rispetto alla stella centrale e vedo di ricavar qualcosa di segreto o poco conosciuto anche a chi lo ha vissuto. Una vita. Gli affibbio una vita che in grande misura è la mia. (Translation)

La Repubblica (Italy) has an article on the publisher Roberto Calasso:

Arricchita da alcuni episodi che rivelano la storia di un bambino in equilibrio tra normalità ed eccezione: campetto di calcio su cui nasce l’amicizia con Enzo Turolla (che lo istraderà alla lettura di Proust), le figurine, avidamente comprate all’edicola, le prime travolgenti letture (Cime tempestose, l'Orlando furioso, i gialli, Simenon ma anche gli angloamericani come Van Dine, Wallace, Stout, Cheney), la scoperta della mitologia, i versi di Baudelaire che il bambino manda a memoria. (Antonio Gnoli) (Translation)

Ngôisao (Vietnam) reviews Wuthering Heights 2011. Numbly Yours posts about Jane Eyre. The Brontë Babe Blog previews John Eyre by Mimi Matthews.

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The Prismatic Jane Eyre Schools Project

An interesting development in the Prismatic Jane Eyre project:

The Prismatic Jane Eyre Schools Project is an AHRC-funded joint project with the University of Oxford and the Stephen Spender Trust (SST), the leading UK charity for creative multilingual activities in schools.
Over 2021, the Project is running workshops in translation and creative writing for young people who are learning modern languages or are speakers of community languages. Using the classic novel Jane Eyre and research about how the text has been translated across the world since its 1847 publication, professional translators will deliver workshops to secondary schools in the UK.
A nation-wide creative translation competition will be launched on 30 September 2021 – International Translation Day! The competition deadline is March 2022. Entrants are asked to produce a poem in another language inspired by a selected passage from Jane Eyre. The competition accepts submissions in any language, and all entries need to be accompanied by a literal translation into English.
Up to 100 entries to the competition will be published in a printed anthology, which will also be available online
Support materials will be available on our resources page: https://prismaticjaneeyre.org/resources/. Additional activity packs will be provided in the workshop languages (Arabic, French, Polish, and Spanish) by October 2021. These materials give learners and teachers the chance to take part in creative translation activities related to Jane Eyre at home or in the classroom.
The competition guidelines and selected passages will be made available online on 30 September 2021 on this webpage: https://prismaticjaneeyre.org/competition-details/.
If you are a teacher who would like regular updates about the competition or the project more generally, please register your interest using this form. https://forms.office.com/r/JV2k133s3Z.
Queries can be directed to Dr Eleni Philippou at PJEschools@ell.ox.ac.uk.

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Illegally

Two Brontës (and Wide Sargasso Sea) in the 100 greatest novels of all time listed in The Telegraph:

79. Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys (1966)

Rhys’s post-colonial prequel to Jane Eyre gives moving, human voice to the “madwoman in the attic” (Mr Rochester's first wife).

14. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë (1847)
Out on the winding, windy moors, Cathy and Heathcliff become each other’s “souls”. Then he storms off. Published under a pseudonym, it was Emily Brontë’s only novel; she died a year later.

7. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë (1847)

Poor and obscure and plain as Jane is, Mr Rochester wants to marry her. Illegally. (He’s already married – see Wide Sargasso Sea, above.)

The University of Cumbria presents the book A Literary Walking Tour of Ambleside by Penny Bradshaw:

The Ambleside Literary Walking Tour details the town’s long history of literary associations through a half-day walk, accompanied by words from the many celebrated poets and novelists who visited or lived in the town, including the Wordsworths, John Keats, Charlotte Brontë and Charles Dickens. (...)
A launch event for the Walking Tour, featuring readings from the book by the author, book-signing, nibbles and a chance to view select items from the Armitt, will take place on 13 August, 6.30–8.30pm at The Armitt, Ambleside.

Charlotte Brontë visited Elizabeth Gaskell at Briery Close (between Ambleside and Windermere) in 1850.  

The Chichester Observer talks with Lily Smith, from the This Is My Theatre Company, who is now touring Jane Eyre:

Just four actors will perform Jane Eyre and The Secret Garden, sometimes both in a day – a great chance for Lily to work with old friends from drama school. (...)

“I was supposed to be doing The Tempest with them last summer but because of Covid that didn’t happen. But this summer luckily Sarah offered me Secret Garden and Jane Eyre. (...)

Lily is confident that the two shows will work well together, good companion pieces in effect: “I think they do both share a lot of themes. There are themes in both of maybe loneliness and there are also secrets in both of them, the first wife in the case of Jane Eyre and the garden itself in Secret Garden.”

Lily will be playing no fewer than seven roles in Jane Eyre. She admits it is going to be hard work taking two plays on the road: “But we are just really pleased to be doing it. We are happy because we love it. (Phil Hewitt)

Brighouse Echo shows a manorial house for sale in Calderdale and name drops a Brontë:

On the edge of Southowram, where Emily Brontë reputedly wrote poetry and gained inspiration for Wuthering Heights, Grade ll Listed Ashday Hall.stands, with views across the valley. (Sally Burton)

St. Louis Post-Dispatch recommends The Disappearing Act by Catherine Steadman:

Catherine Steadman follows up “Something in the Water” and “Mr. Nobody” with “The Disappearing Act,” a fast-paced and lively psychological thriller about the perils of trying to help a stranger.
Brit Mia Eliot is a “Masterpiece Theatre”-level star back home (she’s Jane in “Eyre”!), now taking a shot at conquering Hollywood before it conquers her. (Gail Pennington)

The artist Natalie Franck vindicates the work of Paula Rego (a retrospective is now taking place at the Tate Britain) in Artnet:

During our last visit in her studio, she asked me to undress and don a black, ruched, Victorian dress and pose. We had lunch and went about our afternoon.

Months later I received a package in the mail, a lithograph of me, hawkish, offering Jane Eyre to be inspected by Mr. Rochester. Six months later, another package arrived, this time much smaller, and in it was a beautifully wrapped set of Jane Eyre postage stamps made by the British government, with my evil profile. In true Paula fashion, she insisted that the women be made into first class stamps, the men, second. In her revolutionary drawings, painting and graphic work, she has always put women first.

Bandcamp reviews Rachel Lime's A.U. album: 

Taking the POV of a third NASA Golden Record on “Voyager 3,” Lime sends a message in a bottle to the cosmos in the form of a high-sheen, ‘80s-inflected dance track. “Silla,” meanwhile, is an allegorical imagining, à la “Wuthering Heights,” of the legend of Korea’s Queen Seondeok . (Stephanie Barclay)

Le Devoir (Canada) and Todo Noticias (Argentina) recommend the TV series La Cocinera de Castamar:

Qu’obtiendrait-on si l’on mélangeait Le festin de Babette et Les liaisons dangereuses et qu’on assaisonnait le tout d’un soupçon de Rebecca et d’une larme de Jane Eyre ? Sans doute quelque chose qui se rapprocherait de La cuisinière de Castamar, somptueuse série espagnole, d’après le roman de Fernando J. Muñez, où l’on suit la relation entre une cuisinière agoraphobe (Michelle Jenner) et un duc endeuillé (Roberto Enríquez).  (Manon Dumais) (Translation)

Clara está sola: su madre murió y su padre ha sido injustamente acusado de un crimen. Su entrada en la casa de un gran señor recuerda a Jane Eyre y su llegada a la casa del señor Forrester (sic) en la novela de Charlotte Brontë. (Cecilia Absatz) (Translation)

ReadRate (Russia) recommends Wuthering Heights:

Что ещё почитать, как «Грозовой перевал» Эмили Бронте? Задачка сложная. Если спросить у истинных поклонников произведения, они, пожалуй, скажут, что таких книг вовсе нет, и будут по-своему правы, ведь «Грозовой перевал» – уникальный роман, который перевернул представления о романтической литературе. Но мы всё-таки нашли 4 книги, которые напоминают «Грозовой перевал» по духу, накалу страстей, драматургии и атмосфере. Если вам понравился «Грозовой перевал» Эмили Бронте, обратите внимание на них. (Translation)

Wuthering Heights is included in the list of the "Lire, c’est voyager ; voyager, c’est lire" initiative by the Fondation Vinci Autoroute according to L'Écho Republicain (France). Track2Training reviews Wuthering Heights.

Keighley News publishes several letters in support of the Saving Haworth's Post Office campaign. The Telegraph & Argus recommends an activity that will take place in August at Parson's Field (the meadow behind the Parsonage):

* Another World, set in Parson’s Field at Haworth's Brontë Parsonage Museum, is an installation by NEON Studio exploring an imaginary world where the Brontës ran wild. (Emma Clayton)

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In Rimini, Cantalupo in Sabina and Fleetwood

In Rimini, Italy:

Biglietti agli amiciv'21
Diamo voce a tutte le Morgana: Michela Murgia e Chiara Tagliaferri
Piazza sull’acqua
24 luglio, 19.30h

Michela Murgia e Chiara Tagliaferri faranno parlare le donne controcorrente, strane, pericolose, esagerate, difficili da collocare. Donne fuori dagli schemi, anticonformiste, scomode, spesso antipatiche, rivoluzionarie. Da Vivienne Westwood, stilista che ha rivoluzionato il mondo della moda, all’ex pattinatrice Tonya Harding, da Shirley Temple alle sorelle Brontë, a Marina Abramovic, Caterina da Siena, Moana Pozzi, Moira Orfei, Grace Jones e Zaha Hadid. Da uno dei podcast più seguiti in Italia “Morgana”, il racconto delle loro autrici.

In Cantalupo in Sabina:

Parliamo di Donne. Le Donne scrittrici
Anfiteatro in località San Biagio.

July 25, 19.30 h
Jane Eyre, tratto dal romanzo di Charlotte Brontë. Quest’ultima serata della I^ settimana avrà come ospite l’attore Urbano Barberini, attore, traduttore, produttore teatrale e direttore artistico. Ha molto lavorato con Zeffirelli, regista di Jane Eyre e con Franca Valeri, di recente scomparsa. Il film tratta della storia di una donna di cui emergono la fierezza, la salute morale e la capacità di autogoverno. Questo film ha vinto 1 David di Donatello  (Eleanora Farneti in Gazetta Regionale) (Translation)

In Fleetwood, Lancashire:

Let’s Move Micro Sumamer Festival on July 24 is the launchpad for Fleetwood Moves, a weekly series of community dance sessions designed to improve the town’s physical and mental health. (...)
Among the performers will be YouTube sensation Granny Griggly with her collection of hats and their stories, and the iconic Bush Rush, a Kate Bush style flash mob with their Wuthering Heights dance routine. (Claire Lark in Fleetwood Weekly News)

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Gruesome tales and Scandalous Essays

Edinburgh Live has an article on the Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine mentioning the Brontës love for the journal, but probably the tone could be a bit less... tabloid:

The Edinburgh horror magazine that inspired Charlotte Brontë with tales of terror
Full of gruesome tales and scandalous essays, Blackwood's was an Edinburgh institution. (...)

The Brontë sisters were so inspired by the stories they read in their father’s copies of the magazine as (somewhat precocious) children that Charlotte Brontë wrote and put together a version of her own. Like the rest of her juvenilia it is a tiny, hand-stitched book around 1 inch by two inches with stories imitating those in the real magazine written in cramped handwriting.

Their dissolute brother Branwell, who never published a novel or reached their heights of literary fame but fully believed he deserved to, frequently wrote grandiose letters to the magazine, and when James Hogg died he wrote to them within days to propose himself as the perfect replacement. He was 18 at the time, so unsurprisingly the magazine passed on his kind offer but his sisters’ gothic tales of passion, insanity and revenge clearly have their roots in the dark, unsettling pages of Blackwoods. (Kaite Welsh)

Harper's Bazaar publishes a selection by the writer Bella Mackie of literature's best antiheroines:

Antoinette from Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
“This book is such a wonderful redressing of Jane Eyre, told from the perspective of Rochester’s first wife, the so-called ‘madwoman in the attic’. It is so interesting to me how unfair Jane Eyre is to this character, how readily she is dismissed. This book gives so much care to her backstory to explain what happened to her. The casual trope of wives being ‘mad’ is so dangerous, and to redress that and explain how her agency was taken away is just fantastic. After everything, she is still able to summon the strength and power to burn everything down. It’s impressive.”

The Guardian reviews After Story by Larissa Behrendt:

Behrendt is able to both celebrate the power of Shakespeare’s or Brontë’s art and mourn the vast cost of their colonial transplantation. She suggests that a Eurocentric “culture” divides everyone – including Europeans – from culture. Literature’s “ideas and ideals” both drive and damage us, an illusory yardstick with which to beat ourselves. Yet this is also a love letter to books as technologies of change, that help us “understand where bias and prejudice hide [and] create a new way of thinking”. If the question is what stories might help us decolonise, Behrendt finds the answer in all of them, from the Magna Carta, to Mrs Dalloway, to the fragments Della salvages from memories of her mother’s cousin Elaine and writes in the notebook on her hotel bedside table. (Imogen Dewey)

Kate Bush News reports the following anecdote by Michael Stewart and Kate Bush:

Michael has just published a new book, Walking the Invisible, dedicating it to Kate, which Grazia magazine has described as “an imaginative and elegant trek through the landscape of the Brontës.” Having sent a copy of the book to Kate he was delighted last month to receive a hand written note from her, saying in a tweet: “It’s not every day you get a letter from Kate Bush!” (Séan)

A local librarian who loves Jane Eyre in Framingham Source.  Magia w każdym dniu (in Polish) posts about Jane Eyre.

The SIlver Petticoat Review ranks and briefly reviews fifteen of the best Jane Eyre movies and adaptations.

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